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Jargon 4
Skrell come from the world of Qerrbalak, a planet with a humid atmosphere, featuring plenty of swamps and jungles. The world is filled with Skrellian cities which often sit on stilts. Geography Qerr'balak’s landmass can be separated in three distinct entities : Two continents, separated by the Qo’rria Sea, make up for most of the habitable soil, while a large archipelago of isles spreads on Qerr’xia, the single ocean of the planet. Qorr’gloa is a small, swampy continent on which the skrellian civilization first rose. While many skrellian cities have been built on its coasts, the inner lands are mostly occupied by the aggressive and very territorial Ka’merr. The largest continent, Xi’Krri’oal, have been colonized by the Skrell early in their history, and makes up for most of the Qerrbalak population today. While it is still very humid, its size allowed for more various climates than on Qorr’gloa, ranging from the constantly snowy territories at its extreme south to more temperate, earth-like areas in the inner lands. Among the hundreds of City-States across the planet’s surface, a few of them can be described as being more important than the others : Qarr’kloa : Mythically considered the first State-City ever built by Skrellkind, Qarr’kloa attracts thousands of tourists and archeologists every year thanks to the ancestral structures, built thousands of years ago by the Skrell, scattered in its vicinity. Mo’glar : Built on the northern coast of Qorr’gloa, Mo’glar was, at the time of Xi’Krri’oal’s colonization, a major port of trade between the two continents of the planet. It has kept that role to this day, although it never truly adapted to inter-planetary trade, leaving the task of exporting Qerrbalak’s goods to other planets to other cities, mainly on Xi’Krri’oal. Mi’qoxi : This city, built on the small patch of islands north of Xi’Krri’oal, owes most of its current status to the infamous Qerr-Skria Glo’morr Krrixi who, in the 23th century BCE, built a large empire spanning from the Qo’rria Sea to the current city of Qal’krrea, mostly through military conquests. As the center of his empire, Mi’qoxi became a large center of population and industry and while the fall of the empire at Krrixi’s death did put a halt to the city’s growth, it is still today one of the biggest cities of the continent. Kal’lo : A relatively recent city compared to the other major cities of the planet, Kal’lo quickly rose in status by fathering some of the most important figures of modern skrellian society. It is notably the birthplace of Xikrra Kol’goa, who wrote the Lo’glo’mog’rri in 46 BCE, the constitutional code that is still used by most of the skrellian states in the galaxy. Gli’morr : While Gli’morr is not as heavily-populated than its continental counterparts, its touristic potential made it rich enough to finance the biggest research center of the planet, covering dozens of scientific fields. Its Academy is just as much renowned, and even the lowest Qrri-Mog (although most of its students prefer to continue their studies until they become Qerr-Mog) coming out of its classrooms is considered part of the elite. History The first traces of skrellian civilization date back to around 20,000 BCE in the southern part of Qorr’gloa. Traces and artifacts from this time indicate the first Skrell were organized in sedentary tribes of gatherers, living off the rich vegetation of the swamps they settled on. The founding of Qarr’kloa, considered by many to be the first skrellian city, is estimated to have occurred around 14,000 BCE, gradually attracting the surrounding tribes who preferred its safe walls to the dangers of the region’s fauna. The first traces of writings appear around the same period, which give more insight on the organization of the city at the time; the first rulers of the city were the elders of the various tribes composing its population, and all decisions were taken as a consensus. During the next 2,000 years, Skrell spread across the southern-western area of Qorr’gloa. Several tentatives of colonizing the inner lands were done, all met with heavy resistance by the local tribes of Ka’merr, destroying settlements and killing, sometimes abducting the settlers. While the skrellian civilization spreads across the continent, the government stays centralized in Qarr’kloa, which soon creates tensions in the other cities, as their development comes to an halt. Things keep worsening until, in 10,156 BCE, a coalition of cities declare their independence from Qarr'kloa, thus starting the first war in recorded skrellian history. The conflict lasted for nearly 70 years, deeply changing the political landscape as cities started forming coalitions on their own, sometimes even switching sides between the Loyalists and Separatists. Among the atrocities committed during the war, the first traces of slavery are to be noted, as some factions started coercing the previously feared Ka’merr into fighting for them. By the end of the war, most of the city of Qarr’kloa lies in ruins, and the Separatists force the elder council to sign a treaty guaranteeing their independence. Most of the cities form their own, independent government, but some of them preserve the coalitions they formed during the war, generally forming small groups of five or six cities working under a same government. This is also the time where the first Skrellian kings appear in some of them, even though most of the cities, Qarr’kloa included, are still ruled under the oligarchy they’ve previously used. From this point, any city newly founded is given independence from its previous home city. The damages caused by the war deeply scarred the skrellian society. Thousands of Skrell died in the war and the reconstruction of their cities proved to be a gargantuan task, lasting for the next five decades. One of the inventions made during the war, the catapult, was proven to be needlessly destructive and its use was thus unanimously forbidden by the various governments. The next millennium was much more peaceful for Skrellkind. The taming of some the Ka’merr tribes in the inner lands, and their subsequent enslavement by some cities, allowed the Skrell to spread on the northern coasts of the continent. By 9,000 BCE, most of the cities of the continent adopted the monarchic system that first appeared during the independence war, and the coalitions born from the same conflict had collapsed. While this millennium is still considered as a time of great advancement for the Skrell, it is still controversial to most of the modern Skrell because of the common practice of slavery (whose definitive abolition would only occur in the 43th century BCE) and the senseless expansion of civilization into the Ka’merr’s territories. The colonization of Xi’krri’oal starts in the early 7th millennium BCE, first starting with its western coast. Until then, most of the cities used to live in a relative autarky from each other, but the apparition of new resources and commercial partners suddenly pushed the Skrell to compete and collaborate in a fierce race to obtain monopolies on these newly found goods. The overcrowded cities of the old continent quickly emptied, many Skrell willing to try their luck on these new lands. To the surprise of all, tribes of Skrell were found in the southern areas of Xi’krri’oal and, while their technology was far inferior to their brothers and sisters’, most of these tribes were assimilated into the new cities of Skrellkind in the following centuries. While the Skrell were relatively united culturally until then, the Skrell from Xi’krri’oal started behaving quite differently from their siblings. So far, on Qorr’gloa, the growing lack of space and resources, along with the various dangers inherent to their environment, made the Skrell a very ascetic society, more interested in efficiency rather than actual extension. On the other side, the vast, resourceful and peaceful lands of Xi’krri’oal let the colonists be much more lenient in their use of the environment and in a few generations, a large cultural gap was created between the two groups, the Skrell of the new continent started considering their brethrens as too moralistic and careful, while they themselves turned to an hedonistic lifestyle. As a sign of rebellion, the cities of Xi’krri’oal even authorized catapults to be built for their armies, a decision unanimously criticized by the older cities. The active trade of the early days of the colonization between the continents soon came to halt, and both societies grew independently from each other. While the Skrell from Xi’krri’oal had access to a large range of resources, they did not try to make the best of it, and technological progress slowed down in most areas. On Qorr’gloa, however, the privation of Xi’krri’oal’s resources pushed the Skrell to strive even harder, in order to compensate for what they had lost. Similarly, while the Skrell of the old continent knew the dangers of war and the need for cohesion, the skrellian colonists were regularly caught in small conflicts for one resource or the other. By the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE, the two continents displayed completely different civilizations. On Qorr’gloa, the Skrell had become highly advanced, starting to develop tools prefiguring their soon to come industrial revolution and having adopted the current caste system still used to this day in order to better organize their society, both in natural resources and manpower. On Xi’krri’oal, however, the situation was dire : while the population expanded greatly, no tentative was made to use the local resources in a better way, and the small conflicts that used to be the norm turned to large-scale wars for the control of vital areas. While most of their technology was still akin to the human 12th century, their weaponry constantly grew to more extreme extents, making heavy use of gunpowder and chemical products such as the Krra’mo’gal, which could be compared to the greek fire seen in the human Middle Ages. The situation truly explodes with the coming of what the modern Skrell call the War of the Qrri-Qerria, lasting from the 24th century to the 18th century BCE, as the various City-States of the continent suddenly started to try to conquer each other, quickly forming and dissolving kingdoms. The most famous of them is the kingdom of Glo’morr Krrixi who, starting from the city of Mi’qoxi, conquered most of the northern area of the continent. The result is catastrophic : Over the centuries, tens of millions of Skrell die, either from the war itself or its consequences : Famines are frequent and illnesses quickly spread as the archaic Skrell do not have the knowledge to cure them. Entire cities are burnt to the ground and, according to some of the most alarmist Skrell of Qorr’gloa of the time (the cities of the old continent did not choose to intervene in the conflicts, in fear that they would reach their homes), it was only a matter of decades before the entire continent would be deemed unfit for skrellian life. In the southern part of the continent, a chemical fire started by one of the belligerents soon got out of hands, and is said to have burned for three whole years, wiping out the largest forest of the planet. Eventually, by the 18th century BCE, the various wars would come to a halt, as the kingdoms collapsed, the surviving population revolted and the resources became so scarce that fighting over them would just have been proper insanity. Only then did the Skrell from Qorr’gloa decide to intervene. Indeed, the situation on the old continent was stable enough so that they would be able to provide Xi’krri’oal with food and seeds to rebuild everything they had lost. The reconstruction took nearly 700 years, during which the surviving Skrell of the scorched continent slowly adopted their brothers’ culture, now conscious of the dangers of their ways. From this point, the Skrell know a long period of relative stability. Most of the tensions on the political stage are mostly due to ethical and methodological divergences in the scientific field, and are generally settled during long debates organized by a City-State or another. Around the 9th century BCE, the Skrell know a new jump in their technology, as the Industrial revolution spreads rapidly across the City-States, and Xi’krri’oal is able to catch up on the technological advances of their brethren. While there is no centralized government on Qerr'balak, most of the cities form a homogeneous entity on the political and cultural landscape, and the Skrell feel no need to impose a global political structure that could disturb the status quo, as it did thousands of years ago. As the colonization of space starts around the first century BCE, Qerrbalak reaches a Golden Age, as most of the production of goods is transferred to the colonies, while it itself becomes a center of philosophy and ethical research. To this day, most of the skrellian colonies still look up to it in terms of social organization and moral positions, even though the Skrell's homeworld has been encountering new issues in its last centuries of existence. Politics and Economics Contrary to popular beliefs outside of skrellian society, Qerrbalak is in no official capacity the capital of the skrellian empire. Most City-States, either on Qerrbalak or on a colony are, fundamentally, fully independent in political matters. The traditional skrellian political system is still universally used on the planet with, in some cases, a few differences. For example, the Keri-Glo’i of Kal’lo, while still lacking the right to vote in the Xaq Moglar, are authorized and heavily encouraged to participate in the debates happening in the parliament. With the slow regression in Qerr'balak’s production capacity, new problematics rose during the last centuries of the planet’s existence. So far, Qerr'balak had been a very heavily controlled environment, both in terms of terms of resources exploitation and external influences. Pushed by the human productivity rates and their collapsing economy, the various Academies of Qerr'balak have recently started to debate a loosening of the ancestral restrictions initially put to protect their environment. While most of the City-States have not taken any decisive action for now, a few of them already started to authorize new mining operations and loosened their immigration laws, notably in the southern-western area of Xi’krri’oal. On Qorr’gloa, the debate has reached a point where some academics started mentioning the possibility of relocating the Ka’merr of the inner lands to nature reserves, to clear new spaces for touristic exploitation. Another rising issue among the Skrell of Qerr'balak is the unstable grip the skrellian homeworld has on its colonies. While most of them still follow the teachings of the first Skrell, colonies in the outer limits of the empire have started to slowly adopt new social and political organizations, mainly influenced by the humans they cohabit with. For centuries, skrellian society had worked as a tacitly homogeneous entity, and the sudden pluralism observed in said colonies is starting to worry the more traditional Skrell of the core. Two sides have already emerged, the first professing the need for homogeneity and control on the colonies, while the second defends the right to every City-State’s independence and political autonomy. However, this problem is universally recognized as a serious threat to the skrellian empire, reminiscing of the cultural rift between the two continents of Qerr'balak thousands of years ago and its catastrophic consequences. These concerns put aside, Qerr'balak stays to this day a heavily populated planet and, while its economy is slowly collapsing, it is still one of the richest planets in this sector of space. Some of the most known skrellian companies have their headquarters on the planet, including : - Krri’gli Corp. : Originally building airplanes, Krri’gli Corp. became one of the most powerful skrellian corporations when it started looking into space, and started building ships and stations for most of Qerr'balak’s City-States. Controlling the process from design to the proper building, they have a reputation of manufacturing the safest infrastructures Skrellkind can provide in terms of space colonization. - Qorr’moa Inc. : Founded in the aftermath of the War of the Qrri-Qerria, Qorr’moa Inc. quickly settled as one of the biggest food manufacturers of the planet. While its manufacturing sector is still growing to this day, it has recently opened to new opportunities, most notably in the field of genetic engineering to widen its range of products. - Gloa’Morr Corp. : Initially a branch of Qorr’moa Inc. specialized in pharmaceutics, Gloa’Morr was made an independent entity by a royal decree of the city of Mo’glar two centuries ago. It now provides most of Qerr'balak’s health centers with medicine, along with several other colonies of the core. Fauna The wildlife of Qerr'balak is similar to what you would see in a earth jungle or swamp, the main difference being that instead of mammals making up the population of the larger animals, Qerrbalak has creatures that are essentially dinosaurs, they are large reptilian creatures that make up a good portion of the population of medium to large animals, the other portion of the population is taken up by strange, amphibious creatures that thrive within the swamps of Qerr'balak. Ka’merr The Ka’merr of Qerr'balak are essentially what would have happened if the dinosaurs on Earth were obliterated. They are sentient beings that work within small tribes and they are very territorial. This has led it to both the Skrellian and Human governments that they are deemed unfit for service in space, as any attempt to speak with them has resulted in conflicts. The Ka’merr live within the jungle areas of Qerr'balak and feature plumage that runs down the top of their heads and down to their tails, they have sharp teeth like one would expect and claws, meant for killing, they are capable of walking on two feat and their hands feature three appendages, two fingers and a thumb. They have been seem miraculously in space from time to time, often being forced labour for mercenary groups or, in very rare cases, they are employed as soldiers for the very same mercenary groups. Mektal These are large, bovine sized creatures that are similar in many ways to Komodo Dragons on Earth, They are fast efficient hunters that kill through biting and clawing, if the over all physical damage they inflict on you doesn't kill you the toxins they release through their bites will. They often hunt smaller animals and their territory includes both swamp and jungle areas of Qerr'balak. They have been known to been worshiped by the Ka’merr. Neaera These creatures can be essentially described as an odd mix of Salamander, Frog and Monkey, they often travel about the swamps via the trees and they hunt the larger insects of the swamps as well as eat the plant life in the areas. They are most often neutral to both Skrell and Human presence but they will defend themselves if provoked. Kerr'k A large, fish like creature which travels in the swamps of Qerrbalak, they are considered very dangerous and often attack any creature which is smaller then it (which includes most of the planet’s fauna, it is safest to travel in known Kerr'k territory in a large vehicle). The creature is in truth, not a true fish but an amphibian, which is shaped similarly to a snake. It often eats its prey whole and digests everything, including the bones. Th'oom These creatures are large reptiles that travel in packs, they are often used by the Skrell as cattle, carrying loads and providing fertilizer for crops. Although Skrell have never cooked one themselves due to their bodies being unable to digest meat, it is said that Th'oom stakes are a delicacy amongst the more wealthy humans, although its trade is thoroughly controlled and regulated. They naturally come from the jungles of Qerr'balak, but due to their usefulness they are seen through-out the planet. Flora The Flora of Qerr'balak is vast and in human eyes, strange. The swamps themselves are coloured an odd, dark blue caused by moss that grows in the areas, whereas the trees of Qerr'balak are more akin to extremely large bushes then actual trees, as they have no bark on them and the insides are green, some humans have mistakenly said that they are large vines. The jungle itself lends to that as parts of it are densely populated by large patches of thorny plants, that grow into each other giving the appearance of vines. Krro’a A parasitic mushroom, the Krro’a grows on most of the species of small bushes found on Qorr’gloa. Feeding on the host, it spreads as a thin, white web over its surface and stays on it until it dies, after which the flexible but tough tissue withers and disperses around the dead plant to find new hosts. While the Skrell use it in many culinary ways, it is highly toxic for humans. Th’oom’al What initially started as a mild mycosis on the Th’oom of Qerr’balak ended up being the culinary event of the 18th century for Skrell. Growing between the scales of the oldest reptiles, the Skrell discovered that, while being neither harmful nor painful to the animals, the Th’oom’al was actually a very nutritious and tasteful mushroom the Kanin-Katish were quickly able to harvest in large quantities, leading the newly found organism to become a major ingredient in many skrellian dishes. While having no tangible effect on Skrell, the various psychotropic substances inside the mushroom were found to be dangerous to other species. Qokk’loa One would be too quick in describing the Qokk’loa as simple moss : While it bears some resemblance to the earth species in its first stage of life, this blue plant solidifies after a few months, taking the aspect and texture of bark, forming large patches over the southern forests of Xi’Krri’oal. The Skrell quickly discovered that, during this second stage, the Qokk’loa contained large amounts of what could be compared to green sap. Once exposed to air, it is only a matter of hours before the sap solidifies into a smooth, fragile structure. The solidified sap is now consumed as a snack throughout the skrellian territories. Lethal to humans, the Skrell still feel the mind numbing, relaxing effects of the sap after a couple of hours. Ximi’koa These slander red stalks reminiscent of Earth worms grow in the waters of Qorr’gloa’s swamps. While having close to no nutritional value, their sweet taste makes them a common condiment in traditional skrellian dishes. Considering the lack of notable substances inside the plant, it is safe for consumption for non-Skrell. Go’moa Possibly among the most familiar-looking species for humans, the Go’moa is a small, orange mushroom growing in entires fields on the plains of Xi’krri’oal. Not only one of the main ingredients of mainstream skrellian food, it is also a curious spectacle for the newly arrived tourist, as the spores of the plant, slightly bio-luminescent, give an eerie glow to Qerr’balak’s fields at night. Kol’mo The Kol’mo is among the largest species of mushrooms found on Qerr’balak. Growing in random shapes, sometimes getting as high as 9 feet tall and as large as 13 feet wide, it is a favorite among the Talum-Katish for it allows them to craft the beautiful (and edible) sculptures some of the most skillful skrellian chefs are famous for. It is also very various in its colors, as the Kol’mo can range from a dark blue to an orange-ish red depending on its growing conditions (ground composition, sun exposition…). Mi’krrixi A species of small bushes native of Qorr’gla, the Mi’krrixi produces small, round purple fruits with a skin similar to lemons, used in skrellian dishes for countless ages. It is advised to squeeze the fruit before consumption, as the amount of hallucinogenic substances in its juice could be potentially dangerous, even for a Skrell. Human consumption is not advised. O’krri A mushroom that grows as a thin yellow layer over small ponds, the bitter taste of the O’krri has made it a reliable ingredient for skrellian recipes for centuries. While not strictly dangerous for humans, it is known to make them dizzy, sometimes to the point of somnolence.